240
JOURNAL OF
C ~ M I C AELDUCATION
Syracuse University will join in staging the Annual Exposition and KemSho, May 19th-20th. Over 1000 visitors attended the expositionlast year,induding 150 highschool teachers and students from out of town. October 19th-20th, the Rochester, Buffalo, Ithaca, Schenectady, and Syracnse Sections of the A. C. S. will hold an intersectional meeting in Syracuse as guests of the University. Tentative plans call for a symposium on Cellulose, a half day of general papers, an evening of entertainment, and attendance a t the Syracuse-Nebraska football game. The class in elementary chemistry, which numbers about 700, is being studied intensively from several angles. The seg-
FEBRUARY, 1928
regation of those who have had highschool chemistry from those who have not has proved to be highly satisfactory. After several experiments in sectioning, an the basis of ability, the final semester marks indicate that the highest and lowest quarters of the class can be identified a t the beginning of the course with an accuracy of about 70%. Objective examinations are given periodically and are increasing in favor among both students and instructors. Appointments to half-time graduate teaching positions will soon be made for 1928-29. These positions carry asalary of $750, free tuition and all laboratory fees, and the opportunity to study for an advanced degree.
Health Measures Make City Death Rate Lower. Death rates in the city are now lower than they are in the country because preventive health measures in cities reach and benefit a larger proportion of the inhabitants than is the case in rural areas. This observation was voiced by Dr. Henry F. Vaughan, health commissioner of Detroit, a t a recent conference for race betterment a t which measures for the improvement of the human race were discussed by physicians, health workers, statisticians, and research men of many branches of science. Altering the immediate environment under which man lives may affect whole communities, Dr. Vaughan pointed out. For instance, the substitution of a pure water supply of a city for a polluted one protects all its citizens, although thousands may be wholly ignorant of what has been done. "Of one thing I am convinced, however," Dr. Vaughan declared, "and that is that there are those who cannot be made over into desirable citizens by improvement in environmental conditions. The continued reproduction of these should be checked. They reproduce their kind abundantly and without any sense of responsibility. Statisticians say that the criminal and moron classes are multiplying a t a rate far beyond that of the population a t large. They include the criminal dasses and those deficient in intellect, and in a few of those who intellectually arc a t a par or above the average. I want to state most emphatically that neither education, even the highest education, nor perfect environmental conditions absolutely prohibit the development of undesirable propensities. This wasshown a short time ago by the fact that two University graduates in Chicago were guilty of a most revolting crime."-Science Service
